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Resplendent, part two

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Hello! Happy Tuesday! Below is this week’s update for Resplendent. As always this story will hold subject matter that may not be appropriate for young readers. I hope you like Li’nya, and enjoy her interaction with Imele! I’m really excited to be writing about them.

When the panic subsided I came to the realization that my encounter with the captain had greatly alleviated the symptoms of ha’yf fever. My senses were no longer on overdrive. The ache between my legs had lessened. I felt generally better. I felt immensely more like myself. Ha’yf fever was one of the most terrifying experiences for a Helfian. Normally it was rare for us. Most worked in professions where they could get a continual steady stream of sexual energy without worry. They either had a long term partner who could handle their appetites– another Helfian for example –or they had multiple partners to take care of it.

I happened to choose a profession that would limit my choices. I had not expected it to be so long between stops on known planets. I had not realized I would be exploring the completely unknown or uninhabited planets. It was my bad choice that lead me here. And so I faced the real possibility that I might soon go into full ha’yf fever. Where my body would take over and my mind would retreat. It would be like being aware of the entire ship, but stuck in one room. Unable to move as I desired, unable to act. I would be forced to endure while my body found the sustenance it needed.

I really did not want that to happen.

I made my way to the bridge with reluctance. I was on scan study today. I would be spending the next four hours sitting at a console, watching the constant stream of data from our scans of the planetary system we were in. The doors to the bridge were a soft green color and next to them was a small hand scanner. I pressed my palm over it and waited while it scanned my DNA.

“Tech Li’nya Durah, duty shift alpha-three, bridge access granted.” The soft but clear voice of the computer said from the scanner.

I stepped forward and the doors opened automatically in front of me. The soft fluid hiss of it washed over me. I closed my eyes briefly and then stepped onto the bridge. My stomach felt as if it were filled with gnawing kr’ina. It was tied up and twisted. I felt as if I might throw up. I did not want to spend the next four hours with the captain.

The first step was the hardest and it took me far longer than it should have. I pushed myself onto the bridge, and into the warm white light of it. The floor was almost glowing underneath the overhead lights. A soft green color that reminded me of the seas of my homeworld. The work stations were all of a darker green color and lit with blue, yellow, and white lights. The captain’s station was at the center and could turn in 360 degrees. So the captain could see everyone and what they were doing.

The captain’s chair was facing away from the door at the moment and I couldn’t see him. I took a deep breath and took my second and third steps. I lifted my voice and called, “Tech Durah, reporting for duty.”

A slender violet colored hand shot up from the captain’s seat. A sweetly melodious voice then called, “Well get your ass in your seat then, Li’li.”

My knees shook, and felt weak. It suddenly felt as if the muscles there had simply gone lax. The relief flooding me so damned intense. It was the senior science tech on bridge duty and not the captain. At Fifth Rank Scientific Tech, Imele Lia’ne was the highest ranking science tech on the ship. She was also a member of the command team. She cared about regulation as little as possible. She was a Maleia’a. All of them that I had met shared the same general out look. Rules, regulations, laws were a guideline. So long as you were the best person you could be they were meant to be bent. Morality meant being honorable, and true to the good of all, not following laws blindly.

As such she had a rare yet intense commanding style. Some people saw it as lax, but I saw it was even more strict. You might find yourself written up if you failed her idea of morality. If you failed to do the right thing– even if what you were doing was within regulation –you might find yourself on her “shit list” as she called it.

Luckily for me I had never gotten on her shit list. I also felt that sometimes the rules needed to be bent to do the right thing. So with immense relief I strode across the bridge and took my seat at the scanning station. I keyed in my passcode and pressed my palm over the DNA scanner once more.

The ship read out my rank and name, and allowed me access to the scanner reading’s data. I gave it a brief look over before turning toward Imele. She was half slouched in the captain’s seat, staring down at a slim tablet that was resting precariously on her left knee. Her right hand was on the arm rest, blood red nails strumming away in impatience. I sometimes wondered if she was actually doing work when she was in that seat, or if she was playing some sort of simulator. She had a thing for creating her own societies and then seeing what would happen if she took away all of their food. Or caused some sort of massive geological disaster.

Imele Lia’ne was scary. It would be hell if she ever obtained cosmic power.

She must have felt me looking because she turned her vividly crimson eyes off of the tablet and to me. One golden eyebrow arched at me and she asked, “Do you need something, Li’li? Or are you just wishing you could be as beautiful, smart, talented, and lucky as I?”

It wasn’t said with venom, but I knew she really felt that we all envied her. In truth, many people did. She had so much self confidence it was hard to dispute any claim she made. I was just a little jealous of the way she carried herself. I shook my head and laughed at her. “I was just wondering if there was anything of interest going on today.”

“Oh. Ho ho.” said Imele, she leaned forward and set the tablet aside. Her crimson eyes flickered over me for a moment and she chittered, “You want to hear the latest gossip and scuttlebutt? I heard that Second Tech Markham and First Tech-“

“Not that sort of thing, Fifth Tech.” I said cutting her off before she could start to gossip on the bridge. She might not care about it, but the other members of the bridge crew were beginning to look uncomfortable. Or in the case of Second Tech Hilari, they were beginning to glare at me. “I meant in relationship to our mission.”

Imele looked so very disappointed and flipped her hand in my direction. She gave a soft huff of annoyance at me. “Oh, that. No, nothing.”

“Well, I’ll get to work on these readings then.” I said mildly and turned my attention to the console.

I thought I heard her mumble something underneath her breath but I didn’t quite catch it. I glanced at her but she had already gone back to her tablet. She was glaring at it like she might be trying to melt it with her eyes. I shuddered at the thought of her having the power to kill things with a look. Imele Lia’ne was dangerous as she was.

I turned my attention back to the readings and began my work. There were various different planets around us. Several moons. A yellow sun of large size. We were far away from the sun, closest to the planets furthermost out in its orbit. One of those planets was a large ice planet. Another was a gas giant. The third was a habitable planet. That one interested me the most. I wondered what flora and fauna I might find there.

So I pulled up the scan readings on that planet in particular. They were general and not too surprising. There was vegetation, animal life, but no sign of buildings or civilization. It wasn’t a colonized world of any sort. I was trying to get a more detailed report on the vegetation when I realized that in the scan data there was an anomaly.

“Fifth Tech.” I said, looking up from my console. “There is a spot on the third planet, the Green World, that can’t be scanned. It’s like an invisible section. Or like something is blocking it.”

Imele looked up from her tablet and peered at me. She hopped up from the captain’s seat and marched to my console. She leaned over my shoulder and I caught a whiff of her sugary smell. It seemed to be natural because she always smelled sweet. She poked me with a sharp crimson fingernail and said, “Awesome!”

“What?” I looked at her in confusion.

“Pilot!” She was already whirling away from me and giving out orders. “Get us within shuttle launch range of the Green World. We’re going to send a team down to investigate that spot”

“But, ma’am.” Someone said from the back of the bridge, near the security duty consoles. “Shouldn’t we investigate from up here a little more?”

Imele waved a hand at him and said, “It’s invisible to scanning. How exactly are we going to do that? Pilot get us moving!”

“Yes, ma’am.” The pilot said and then began to press keys on her console.

Imele came back to me and grinned at me, “Ready for a little adventure on an unknown planet?”

Something about the way her eyes shone with glee frightened me. All I could do was nod quietly at her. The kr’ina were back in my stomach. This would prove interesting, at the very least.